Game Recap

Game Recap

Langley, British Columbia - Even Michael Jordan didn't score 40 points a game in his prime...and so Adam Friesen "only" scored 27 tonight in TWU's 86-74 win over Brock University. The Spartan men's basketball team has now completed its three game series against OUA teams, defeating Guelph, McMaster, and Brock to remain undefeated and improve their preseason record to 4-0-0.

Unlike the previous two games, tonight's contest started off rather sluggishly with neither team hitting their shots in the early going. Then TWU went on a 13-3 run five minutes into the half to go up 21-8. Brock struggled to hit their shots and get any open looks for the entire first half, taking a few too many ill-advised three-pointers. The first half ended with TWU ahead 51-32.

Brock's Kevin Stienstra was a one man scoring machine for the Badgers, almost singlehandedly keeping his team in the game with 24 second half points. His explosion of points, combined with TWU's rebounding woes, allowed the Badgers to creep back into the game, but they would never get close enough to seriously threaten the Spartan lead. TWU had a bit of a scoring drought, not scoring a bucket for more than four minutes late in the second half, during which time Brock was able to cut into their lead by scoring 11 unanswered points. However, it was too little too late and the Badgers resorted to "foul tactics" to give themselves more time. Unfortunately for them this strategy proved ineffective against consistent Spartan free throw shooting (15-20 in 2nd half, 23-29 overall or 79%).

Head Coach Stan Peters commented on the play of his team through these last three games: "We came out of this weekend with three victories, and overall I think we learned a lot about ourselves as a team: who needs to have the ball and where to get the ball to, as well as how to play together defensively. Each of these three games our guys came out of the gate ready to go and executed the game plan, giving us significant halftime leads. I don't know if we'll get a ranking out of this, but people will definitely look at us now. Anytime you beat a program like McMaster - and we beat them pretty soundly - you'll turn some heads."

TWU's men's and women's basketball teams are on the road next weekend, traveling to Oregon Tech for a tournament, October 31-November 2. Their next home games are the league openers against Winnipeg on November 8 & 9.

Game Notes: Brock's Kevin Stienstra led all players with 32 points and 10 boards...Jon Lundgren also had a productive game, with 24 points...TWU shot 57% from the floor in the 1st, including 73% from beyond the arc...